I shared with you my side of things… everything from our first date to the friend zone, but what I left out was Josh’s side of things. What he thought about our first kiss and how he took the news that I just wanted to be friends. I thought it would be important to include both sides of the story.

So I asked him to help me out and we decided to give you just that: Josh’s side of the story…

“Did you kiss her?” asked my brother Matt excitedly.

*laughing*

“Yep! And It was grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!” I couldn’t keep in my excitement as my eyes rolled back in my head remembering just how great the date had been.

Upstairs my grandpa continued the questions. “How was the date with WHIT?!?” I told him it had been amazing. He was shocked that I had been on two amazing dates now with a girl as cute and talented as Whitney.

Then he said it, the phrase that would turn out to be all too true: “With a girl like that I’m afraid, Josh, that you’ll have plenty of competition!” Of course, I knew this was probably true, but after the last two dates and that Kiss of kisses I just laughed it off. I was ready for the competition, or at least I thought so…

That week things began to change. Text messages were exchanged. Sort of. Our conversations felt empty. Hollow. I WAS SO CONFUSED!!! Why did it feel like I was texting someone completely different than I had been dating??

A third fun date with no DTR left me even more confused than before. I received a late night text from Whitney. I was in bed. I knew as I rolled over that if I picked up my phone whether it was really good or really bad I would get no sleep that night. I did not want to look at that phone.

The anticipation was killing me. I read the text.

My heart dropped.

I was right. No sleep.

That was it. There was no way I was going to be with this girl. It was clear in my mind that she was interested in someone else or at the very least just not interested in me. She gave me the whole “I just don’t feel ready for a relationship at this point.” And “I would still love to be friends, but nothing more.” But I just knew (or rather, I thought I knew) that those words translated to “I don’t really want to date you.”

However, instead of reacting with emotion that night I decided to thank her for the text- finally having some sort of definition for our relationship- and told her we would be fine to go on our last planned date as just friends.

I had bought tickets weeks prior to a concert in Salt Lake City of a band we both like. I was not nearly as excited for this date as I had been for the previous dates, but I went prepared.

I was determined going into this date that I was NOT going to be pathetic. Of course, I still had some feelings for this girl, but I decided days before this date that if she wanted to be friends I was going to be the best friend she had ever had! My plan? No holding hands, no flirting, and certainly no kissing!

When the date started, my thinking and rethinking started.

We started the drive in the middle of rush hour from Provo to Salt Lake, but we were prepared and left with plenty of time to spare. “I like this a lot.”

With all of the extra time, we took a small drive through my hometown in West Valley City. I showed her my high school, my church, my old home. “I could be her friend! We could make this work!”

She made lots of jokes. I laughed.

I made lots of jokes. SHE laughed! “Ok, the friend zone might not work for me.”

Eventually, we made it to the concert. We found our seats and shortly after the music began, her hand also began…to move towards mine. “What is going on?!?”

To be continued…

Read previous parts of the story:

For those of you who haven’t caught up yet, you should start with PART ONE.

Last time we talked I left off when Josh and I had just completed our first date. What a wonderful date. I was liking this boy hardcore at this point.

A week later he asked me on a second date.

It was Halloween. He picked me up and we went to his house to meet up with his brother Matt and Matt’s girlfriend Joey. Josh was living with his grandparents and like most grandparents houses on Halloween, it was a bustling place. There were all kinds of family members everywhere. I just sat there on the couch and tried to comprehend what was going on. Josh’s Grandpa came up to me and said “you must be Whit!” and then told me he thought I was a great writer and that he had read my blog. Which I thought was awesome because it’s every writer’s goal in life to have others enjoy your work. Josh was embarrassed because it revealed that they had definitely been stalking me on the internet, which I thought that was cute.

After meeting his entire extended family (on the second date… who does that? haha) We went to the Center Street Halloween Party in Provo. Josh and I went dressed as bank robbers, while Matt was dressed as a trash bag and Joey opted for a Jedi costume… which she wasn’t wearing yet when we took these pictures.

The Center Street party was fun. Being 4’10” tall makes squishy dances rough because I can’t ever really see what was going on and people tend to mull over you when they can’t see that you’re there. Josh was really good at always making sure I was safe. We held hands real tight during this whole time… mostly because I liked him, but also because I was nervous I was going to get squished to death by all the people.

After spending some time on Center street we decided to go back to his place and watch a couple episodes of Stranger Things.

We cuddled.

After some Stranger Things, he took me home to drop me off. He walked me to the door and that’s when it happened…

He pulled me in for a tight hug and told me how much fun he had had that night and looked me in the eyes and…

*drumroll*

He kissed me.

*swoons*

Right on the mouth.

*passes out*

Oh, it was great and we were both beaming. It was an absolutely perfect, magically wonderful, splendid first kiss.

We pulled away and both grinned as he said: “we should definitely do this again soon.” I stood at the door as he walked away with his head cranked around to look at me as he walked. What an incredible night.

But here’s my dilemma…

What I didn’t mention last time is that at this point in my life I was dating a lot of other people. My roommates would laugh at me because every night when I would come home from work I would start getting ready for a date and they would always say “who are you going out with tonight?” and the answer was always different.

I had a mutual account (yes… I know… I was one of those people) and was doing my best to meet people everywhere I went. I was dating like madness.

This was all a weird experience for me because before my mission I had been on a total of seven… YES… SEVEN dates. When I first came home from my mission I hadn’t ever kissed a boy and had literally not even held a boys hand before I was an R.M. So to come home from my mission and suddenly have seven dates a WEEK sent me into shock. I wasn’t used to this. I didn’t know how to handle all this attention and all the stress that comes from having a large array of boys fishing for your attention.

And to make matters worse at this point I was in the midst of drama with a boy I had dated over the summer, as well as experiencing drama with another boy I had also recently started dating. So much so that I became incredibly confused about what I wanted and had a diluted desire to start a serious relationship with anyone. I was left hurt and confused and angry and I wanted out of all these uncomfortable situations.

I was feeling completely overwhelmed by this whole deal. I was sick of the drama and I was sick of the stress from all these silly boys so I decided I was going to take a break.

From all of them.

I needed a reset. I needed a clean slate. To quote Lady Antebellum, I needed a Heart Break. I needed a minute to figure out what I wanted with my life.

So I worked on friend zoning them all…

one by one.

On one of the nights to follow, I went to Josh’s house to watch some more episodes of Stranger Things. I knew I wanted to tell him that I wanted to just be friends, but I also wanted him to initiate the D.T.R. because I knew it was overdue and I was too nervous to initiate it myself. All night we danced around that topic. On this particular night I also had a paper due at midnight and was anxious to get home and get it done, and It was also on that night I had received some other disappointing news that only added to my stress. With all of that on my plate, I was definitely not in a place that I wanted to have a long conversation about feelings.

Josh took me home and I rushed inside to complete my assignment before the clock struck twelve.

At about one in the morning, after hitting submit on my assignment, I also hit submit on a text to Josh.

I explained to him that I really did like him, but that I wasn’t at a place in my life that I wanted to start a serious relationship.

I told him I wanted to just be friends.

to be continued…

One beautiful October day (October 26th to be exact) I was leaving campus after a successful day of classes when I walked past a small group of people tossing a frisbee around. One of them looked towards me and yelled “you ready?!” as he prepared to toss the frisbee in my direction.

I yelled back “sure!” although my hands were full and I was definitely not ready.

He tossed the frisbee in my direction and with hands full of my phone and keys I fumbled to catch it and it inevitably ended up on the ground. I went to go pick it up to toss it back to him when I noticed a note on the front of the frisbee written in sharpie…

This note would change my life.

The note stated that he was looking for a date for the next day and if I was available and interested I should write my name and number on the bottom of the frisbee and toss it back to him.

I flipped over the frisbee and sure enough, there was a sharpie and a piece of paper taped to the bottom of the frisbee.

As I stood there trying to comprehend what was even going on and what the heck I should do the boy started to walk towards me.

He was cute.

I was free.

So I scratched down my digits real quick.

And that’s where it all began.

I gave him back the frisbee with my number now written on the back. He said he’d text me. I was beaming as I walked to my car and texted several of my close friends to tell them about the crazy event that had just happened.

Not too long later I got a text from the boy telling me his name was Josh.

I saved him in my phone as “Josh the Frisbee Boy”

The next day he picked me up and we met up with a group of his friends. We trecked over to the local corn maze.

We ran around in the crisp October weather through the tall walls of corn as we got to know each other. I don’t think I’ve ever clicked with a boy so quickly on a first date in my life. We became friends so fast and it felt as if I had known him for years. He had just the right sense of humor and better yet… he even laughed at all my jokes. Conversation flowed just so easily as we talked about everything from random facts about us to deep doctrine found in Facsimile 2 in the Book of Abraham. (no joke… that’s what we talked about on our first date. haha)

As we ran through the corn maze we ended up ditching his group of friends altogether because we were just enjoying each other’s company so much. At one point he put his arm around me and that’s how we walked around for the rest of the time in the maze. Once we made it out we went and sat by a fire which was where he held my hand for the first time.

While we sat by the fire holding hands we discussed our favorite General Conference talks. I was a goner. Never in my life had a met a boy that could carry a gospel conversation quite like Josh could. There was something so special about him. And to find someone so great that wanted to hold MY hand?! What a dream.

As we were walking we had a group of people ask us if we would be willing to take a picture of them. We willingly obliged. As we were standing there another couple walked up to us and thinking we were apart of the group, asked us if we wanted them to take a picture so that we could be in it too. We explained that we weren’t actually with their group and were just taking a picture of them. One of the guys jokingly said, “well, do you want a picture with them anyways?!”

We both laughed and shrugged and said “hey! Why not!”

And that’s how our first picture we ever took together was a blurry picture with a group of strangers.

The rest of the date was splendid and after we met back up with his group of friends we decided to go to iHop where we shared some stuffed french toast (one of my absolute favorite foods might I add.)

We finally left the restaurant and he took me home around one in the morning. At my door he gave me a sweet hug and with a grin from ear to ear he told me how much fun he had and said he’d like to do this again sometime. I said of course and thanked him for a great night.

Little did I know how much “Josh the Frisbee Boy” would quickly become a part of my life. There would be some bumps and obstacles to follow, but at this point, we had a perfect start to a wonderful story and I was thrilled to see what was to come!

To be continued………

I’m just cuddled up here on the couch on a Sunday afternoon thinking about The Savior and how magnificent His birth was to the world. All afternoon I’ve been listening to the Forgotten Carols by Michael McClean.

Michael McClean’s music follows the nativity story and the characters from that story that have been forgotten. What would the Inn Keeper say if you asked him his story? Would he encourage the world to let the Savior in? An angel auditions to sing in the choir at the Savior’s birth, but doesn’t make the cut. The Shepherd’s sing about their visits from the angels. Joseph sings shares his feelings about loving Jesus even though he wasn’t the Savior’s father.

As I’ve been sitting here in my tiny apartment surrounded by Christmas lights and Christmas music It’s lead me to wonder… what would my Forgotten Carol be? What story do I have to share about the Savior’s birth?

Just like the Shepherd sings; “I did not go to Bethlehem or hear the Angels sing.”

But what about that one time when I was fourteen when I first knelt and asked if He was really there? I felt Him. I knew. What about that time in High School I testified of the Saviors Birth and felt that burning that confirmed that feeling? What about those times I knelt and asked for forgiveness? Was it not Him that lifted that pain from my shoulders? What about that time I stood as a His full-time representative as a missionary for His church? Did my service in His name lead others closer to Him? What about that time last week that I was having an off day and somebody else followed His example and served me.

Does that not make me a part of the story?

As I sat here pondering all of this it made me realize that we are all a part of the nativity story. I’m sure we all watched patiently from heaven for the birth of our Savior. I’m sure we sang along with the Angels when we heard them sing. I’m sure there were shouts of joy when we knew that He had come as King of King and Lord of Lords to save US from our sins.

And even now, as we share love for each other we continue to keep that story alive. We continue to turn new chapters that made the Savior’s birth and life significant. It’s up to us to keep the story going.

So this Christmas as you sing of Sleigh bells and Christmas Trees, don’t forget to sing of Him.

Because His birth is why you’re here. You are a part of this story.

And to echo the Shepherd I ask;

“Do you think you’ll join us though you’ve not seen a thing? And you were not there in Bethlehem to hear the angels sing. But if you feel this spirit in the air. Then just like me, you’ll know he was here.”

My friend’s I know that He is here.

What part of His story are you going to tell?

-Whit

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P.s. I just wanted to take a quick sec and direct you on over to my Portfolio Site! I recently added a sweet new engagement shoot that I did over the weekend that I am whipping and nae naeing about! #HeartEyesForDays

A couple months ago I posted a story on instagram about an experience I had with one of my tumbling students.

This particular student is eight years old has a few extra trials that most 8 year olds I teach don’t have. When I first met this friend of mine he was terrified to even do a forward roll and would hardly jump on a trampoline because of his anxiety and would just repeat over and over again “but teacher it makes me too nervous.” My most common phrase I’d say to this friend of mine is “Be brave.” And you’d better believe we’ve had a several long talks about what it means to be brave. Earlier this week we were in class when I was working with my class on the trampoline. I asked them to climb up on a large box that is bigger than they are, jump off of it onto a trampoline, then continue doing specific jumps down the trampoline. When this friend’s turn came he wobbled up the box and climbed to his feet. I was fully expecting another spout of fear so I looked at him and said “are you brave?” And he just gave me a big thumbs up and said “I’m gonna rock it teacher!!” And just like that he jumped right off that box and did some of the prettiest jumps I’ve ever seen him do. You’d better believe there were tears in my eyes because at that moment I was reminded why I love what I do so darn much.

I have experiences like this all the time as a tumbling coach.

There are moments in every person’s life that are monumental. For most gymnasts, some of those events include learning difficult skills for the first time or accomplishing things that are difficult for them.

There is a special moment in each of these experiences that pierce every coach right to the center.

These moments usually happen seconds after the athlete has accomplished something difficult. It’s the moment when the athlete looks at their coach with joy in their eyes as if to say “coach! Look what you helped me do!”

I had three of these moments yesterday. The first was when one of my competitive athletes did her back handspring by herself for the first time. The other two were when some other athletes connected multiple back handsprings in a row that they had never done before.

That look. The look at the very end of this video. Is the reason I coach.

It’s in these moments I’m reminded why I do what I do. I’m reminded that I love these kids. I’m reminded how cool it is that I get to play a tiny part in the big events in someone else’s life.

Because it’s not about the flips or the fancy tricks, but it’s about believing in someone more than they believe in themselves. And I’ve learned that if you believe in them long enough, they’ll start to believe too. And that means everything to me because I’ve been that athlete before that’s been blessed because someone has believed in me.

The moment I did my first back handspring. The moment I landed my first full. The moment I found out I had qualified for my first national championships.

I know in each of these moments I looked towards my coaches with this same look of joy in my eyes. Because I knew they had put in just as much effort as I had. And they cared about me.

Those are moments I will forever be grateful for.

So everytime an athlete looks at me like that… I think of them. I think about how they believed in me. I think about how they impacted my life. And that means the world.

For the last five years I’ve documented my life over at FeelMySunlight.blogspot.com and what a joy that has been! I’ve journaled my life over there through my junior high years, through my high school adventures, through my years as a competitive power tumbler, through my journey as a tumbling coach, and most importantly, through my experience as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Orlando, Florida.

And what a journey it’s been!

But with 2018 approaching, it’s time for a new chapter!

And for all of those who have been following along over the last five years don’t you even worry… I made sure to transfer over all my archives to this blog! So none of the fun has been lost!

And in addition to creating this lovely website, I’ve also been busy updating my official portfolio site! Which can be found by clicking the link at the top of this blog!

So I guess it’s time for an update about where I’ve been the last little while, and where I am headed!

I returned home from my full-time mission in Orlando Florida last April. I left a piece of my heart there and was forever changed by that experience. After returning back to Utah I spent the summer with my lovely family in Layton Utah. This last August I went on a lovely vacation back to my mission to visit many of the wonderful people I met as well as finally swim in the Atlantic Ocean and visit Disney World. A few days after returning home from that adventure I packed up everything and moved down to school. I now live in Provo, Utah and attend Utah Valley University. I’m studying Graphic Design and am loving everything about life down here in Happy Valley. I’m right in the middle of taking finals for this semester and am proud to say I got 100 percent on my yoga final today. Y’all should be jealous. After this semester I am going to take a semester break to do some graphic design and photography work and to build up my portfolio.

I’m also a coach at a local tumbling gym and if you stick around long enough you’ll probably hear a story or two about my cute students because they are my world. I am still taking lots of pictures and drinking my grapefruit juice every morning. If you see me with headphones I’m either listening to Disney music or the New Taylor Swift Album.

The other day I was at the gym coaching one of my little competitive tumbling teams. This team likes to give me grief every now and then and on this particular night they were having an especially difficult time.

They were having a really hard time listening to and following directions. Their attitudes were out the window and every few minutes I had another kid in tears for menial reasons. And as every minute passed I felt my blood boil more as I started to slip into what I call “strict coach mode.” Pretty soon everything they did made me mad and I stopped being their friend and started being their dictator.

I had about had it.

It was at this point that one of my seven year old students flopped on the ground wailing about how he couldn’t do a back handspring the way he wanted to as tears streamed down his face. This was probably the fifth tear episode from the class and the second one from him in about 20 minutes.

I swallowed everything inside of me that wanted to yell at him and say “get up. you’re fine. stop crying.” and I pulled him aside and sat him down on the edge of the tumbling floor. I knelt down on his level and put my hands on his knees and said “buddy… how come everything is making us so upset today?”

I expected to him wail back at me something about me and my coaching. I expected him to complain about how he didn’t like what I was making him do or something along those lines.

His response shocked me.

He looked up at me with tears pooling from his eyes and said “I got in a fight with my mom on the before tumbling today. She was yelling at me and it hurt my feelings. I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

It had nothing to do with back handsprings, or tumbling, or my coaching. It had everything to do with what this little boy was experiencing in his life.

So I asked him to tell me more. I just sat and listened and didn’t say anything. I just let him talk. After a few minutes of him telling me this story he wiped away the tears and I asked him if he felt better. He nodded and I said “should we get up and try our back handsprings again?” and sure enough he popped right up and did his back handsprings perfectly.

So often in our lives we interact with people without really taking the time to know what’s really going on behind the curtain. We judge them for the things they say or do and we don’t take into consideration the fact that there might be more to it than meets the eye. And even worse, we interpret their actions to have something to do with us. As if they don’t like us or they have a problem with us, when in reality, most of the time it has nothing to do with us.

There is a quote that keeps coming to my head every time I think about this experience that says“Be Kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” -Plato.Isn’t this just the truest statement?

So since then I’ve made an effort to take this philosophy into the other classes I teach. I’ve made an effort to take the time to talk to each child during class to ask them about school and their families and different parts of their lives. I’ve been amazed at how much just a little kindness makes in someones life. I’ve been so surprised by how the children have responded to this small gesture of listening. During one of my classes this week one of my small quiet girls ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug and whispered “we are going to be best friends, okay?” I know she never would have done that had I not taken the time to show her I wanted to be her friend first.

And I’ve also noticed how much of a difference the little kind acts of others have made in my own life. I’ve noticed myself become physically happier when I walk into work and my boss takes the time to say hi to me, or when I walk into one of my school classes and the girl sitting next to me takes the time to ask me how my weekend was, or when the random friend snapchats me to ask me how I’m doing because he hasn’t heard from me in a while. All of these things have made such an impact on my life and sometimes I don’t even notice it.

Kindness is real. You might not be able to change the world, but you have the power to change someones world with just one small act of kindness.

So there’s some food for thought for your day today. Take the a minute to consider the people in your life and your current relationship you have with them. Are you taking the time to listen to their stories? Are you talking the time to be kind to them? Because I promise you, it will make a world of difference.